Éric Barbaroux: “Electricity must take precedence sooner or later”

Hello Eric. Coming from an electric fan, you couldn't come other than in a BMW i3!

I am very happy to find her here, in Pau-Arnos (Pyrénées-Atlantiques). This is the second evolution. The i3 was the official car of the Paris ePrix. It reminds me in particular of a memory of an old gentleman, who had a leg amputated, and who was staying at Les Invalides. We had promised to take a tour of the circuit with it. This was part of an agreement with the Hôtel national des Invalides to brighten the lives of patients who fought for our homeland. He never left his room. Once installed in the car, I saw him laughing endlessly. It was a beautiful link between History and the future.

You are talking to me about Paris, but today we are around 800 km from the capital. What are you doing on the Pau-Arnos circuit?

It is a combination of circumstances. My wife's family lives in Garlin, north of Pau. It’s a pleasant region that I learned to discover. Furthermore, after several years of experience in electric motorsport, I wanted to find a permanent base which would serve as a development for mobility. With Pierre Gosselin, my partner in Quellec, we tried to find a sort of “ Futuroscope of mobility ». Nous souhaitions permettre au public de s’essayer à toutes les formes de mobilités nouvelle génération (deux-roues électrique, drone, etc.). Nous avons bien tenté de créer un pôle du côté de Paris, mais s’initier à la mobilité implique d’avoir un circuit, et provoque des craintes de la population par rapport au bruit. Les projets étaient coûteux et longs à mener. Il valait mieux partir d’une solution existante. Je venais dans le Béarn pour les vacances et Pau-Arnos avait une